SSTI and Smart Growth America have updated The Innovative DOT with new content and case studies. The 2014 edition of the handbook can be found here.

The Innovative DOT: A handbook of policy and practice

Revenues are falling and budgets are shrinking. Yet state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have ambitious goals: improve safety, reduce congestion, enhance economic opportunity, improve reliability, preserve system assets, accelerate project delivery, and help to create healthier, more livable neighborhoods, just to name a few. These goals would be challenging even if money were no object, but dwindling conventional federal and state transportation funding makes these goals even harder to achieve.

The answer is innovation

In response to these challenges, DOTs across the country are changing the way they do business. Knowing that America’s transportation network is crucial to economic growth, agencies are taking new approaches to transportation that fit the unique demands of their states and that provide greater benefits at less cost. They are improving existing services in the short term and planning effectively for the long term. They are adopting innovative yet pragmatic reforms. They are reevaluating and retooling traditional practices to ensure that those practices continue to provide users with a robust, economically beneficial transportation network.

These leaders and agencies are better meeting the needs of their residents, galvanizing political support for their work, and supporting the future prosperity of their state. Their success offers a model for others to follow.

A handbook of policy and practice

SSTI has partnered with Smart Growth America to develop The Innovative DOT, a resource for state transportation officials. This handbook provides 31 recommendations transportation officials can use as they position their agencies for success in the new economy. The handbook documents many of the innovative approaches state leaders are using to make systems more efficient, government more effective and constituents better satisfied.

We hope this handbook will be a living document, updated periodically with new and improved policies and practices. We invite reader comments, suggestions and ideas for additional case studies. Direct comments to Eric Sundquist, erics@ssti.us.